+ Stuff

+ Not only is this a reminder about the competition but Electrolux Design Lab has a great page design. Check it out.

+ The Sydney Observatory (part of the Powerhouse Museum), has recently launched a blog. So far all posts have been entered by the curator Nick Lomb and Education staff member Geoff Wyatt. It’s early days yet but I hope there will be more contributors in the near future. This is the second blog from the management of the Powerhouse, the other blog Fresh + New is largely authored by Seb Chan and the odd other Web Services & Digital Media team members at the Powerhouse Museum, and has been on-line now for just over 1 year. Soon to be added to this list will be the Powerhouse’s third blog and design portal – Design Hub due for launching during Sydney Design 06 …… stay tuned.

+ This week we are saddened by the announcement of Bronwyn Oliver’s death.

She worked for over twenty years producing an extraordinary body of sculpture that revealed a unique vision of beauty. Bronwyn showed with Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery from the beginning of her exhibiting life.

+ The NSW Government has announced the merger of the Powerhouse Museum and Australian Museum. Combined the institutions cost the taxpayer and the government a large sum of money.  The government is looking to make savings through a joint trust and a shared chief executive and bureaucracy, joint ticketing and marketing, common educational and outreach programs, better planning of exhibitions, and smarter use of storage space. And this all arrives as the Powerhouse gets closer to opening it’s Castle Hill property that has been under development for some years, and employing artistic directors to oversee the development of exhibitions and programs.

Bollywood Dreams

Jonathan Torgovnik

On show at the Immigration Museum, Melbourne is this wonderful display of photographs that takes a look at the largest film industry in the world – Bollywood. Including original photographs by New Yorker Jonathan Torgovnik and behind the scenes documentary footage, Bollywood Dreams explores the power of cinema in India as both entertainment and social phenomenon.

In your face: contemporary graphic design

Priest Beer by Reg Mombassa

In your face: contemporary graphic design will open at the Powerhouse Museum on 5 August as a feature of Sydney Design 06 and will run until end of January 2007.

The exhibition will present mainstream and alternative design from new media, motion graphics, animation, music video, and web design through to large scale billboard design, comic design, poster design, book design, and magazine design. The designs have been created for a broad spectrum of clients from community groups to large corporations like Toyota. The unique identity program for Dare Jennings (the founder of Mambo) collaborator for a new Japanese-inspired customised motorcycle flagship store, Deus ex Machina will also be featured.

A Droog Touch in Sydney

Chest of Drawers by Tejo Remy, 1993

Object Gallery will be hosting A Human Touch, an exhibition of world renowned design phenomonon, Droog Design.

A Matter of Time

Holly Story, Belongings, 2003

On show at Object Gallery are twenty five individuals form a range of backgrounds from visual arts to craft and photography. “A Matter of Time’ invites you to

think about the relationships between time and making, materiality, ritual, the present and memory. From hangings and baskets, to garments and drawings, a matter of time addresses present concerns in powerful ways, using some of the most traditional textile processes and humblest media available.

Sounds like it could be worth a look.

OBJECT GALLERY
15 July – 27 August 2006

A competition that challenges you to design buildings for the some of the most dramatic and exciting locations in the world.

Open to architects, architectural technicians, students, designers and engineers, each brief offers you the opportunity to stretch your creative mind to the full. The buildings are not to be built but the competition tests the realms of creativity and innovation for the chosen locations – A bit Fantasy Island but good for the imagination and to keep the creative juices running. Briefs are still open for the Waters Embassy Headquarters in Nambia and for the Tideway Opera House on the Thames Estuary in London.

The Melbourne Design Festival has launched – check the website for the full program.

New Inventors, an exercise in democratic design

Biolytix Filter by Dean Cameron

Tonight I watched one of my favourite programs in a rather reflective mode – The New Inventors 100th show. I may have been under the influence of a glass or two of wine, nevertheless I realised for the first time how much I enjoy this program. I couldn’t help but reflect on the reasons why. The program does not present celebrity designers like Rashid, Lovegrove, Arad or Philip Starck, rather it presents inventors of all ages, male and female from all walks of life, who have dedicated their time and energy to the efforts of improving our lifestyles not only through good and saleable design but also through thoughtful, functional and recognisably needed design, innovation and sometimes invention.

Sydney Design 06

The tenth international Sydney based Design Festival, Sydney Design 06 Website has been launched. The event is to take place in less than a month and promises to over 70 events at 40 venues. The 16 day program includes exhibititions, seminars, speakers, film screenings, a designer market, awards and competitions and special tours.

Stripped Bare

A new product released by Jo Philippsohn to be released in Melbourne and Sydney echoes the cubist elements of Marcel Duchamp’s Nude Decending a Staircase

Jo here repeats successive movements of a single form to make a dynamic and versatile design.